Make Holes?

[makeideas.com]

Hi All;

 

I have been using AM for about two years and love it. But, even with all the fun, I have not been able to figure out how to make a hole in a compliated 3D shape.

 

So, if I wanted to make a hole in a shere, or a rod (at a right angle). How would I do that ?

 

From the other posts, some say I should make the hole first, then build around that.... but that can't work for the intended applcation.

 

In AutoCAD, it uses a 'filet' where everything on the selected side of the shape is deleted, leaving the balance; thus creating a hole, or window....

 

Thank you for your efforts. !

 

KM

[KenH]

AM has booleans which cut out a shape at render time. It's not really a substitute to making the mesh, but it can get you out of a "hole" (pun intended). All you do is make your hole shape as a solid (putting it in the right place in the "to be cut" shape) and then assign it to a bone. In the bone options, there's a boolean setting to cut out the shape.

[heyvern]

I would read about booleans in the technical reference.

 

Sometimes it is very time consuming to actually build those "holes" in a complex or even simple object. A boolean is a little tricky to set up (uses bones and named groups) but in some cases can produce the results needed and is quicker in the long run to create.

 

Keep in mind booleans do not effect the actual mesh. They are sort of a cheat that is really only seen in the render. I have used them in the past very effectively. It all depends on how critical the "holes" are and how much they "interact" with everything else going on.

 

It is tricky to do but I've actually created a bevel edge on a hole using booleans. You have to sort of think "backwards". But considering that the resulting mesh doesn't have 50 bazillion patches at the end it was worth it.

 

I believe there may be some plugins out there possibly that sort of do some kind of "cutting" and "merging" or "fileting" of shapes. Might have to search them out.

 

-vern

[Paul Forwood]

if I wanted to make a hole in a shere, or a rod (at a right angle). How would I do that ?

I couldn't find my porthole tutorial but this one shows you how to put a hole in a sphere and the principal is exactly the same for cylinders or whatever. It is pretty basic.

Download the zip file, unzip it and run it. It is in Wink format.

 

Hope it helps.

 

(Please note the mistake that I made: Press "A" not "Ctrl/A".

[makeideas.com]

well, did the booleen thing, no workey. the final render shows part of the rod stil and no hole in the sphere.....

 

any other ideas?

[makeideas.com]

Download the zip file, unzip it and run it. It is in Wink format.

 

do you have a link to the zip file?

 

I also think i may have a solution. I just select the area that I want the hole in the model, then set that to 100% transparent in the surface attributes....

 

Thank you for your help.

 

KM

[KenH]

Oh yeah. I think Booleans still need to be fixed. You might put in a report.

 

Edit: Refer to next post.

[Eric2575]

Let's investigate why "No workey."

 

In order for a boolean to work, you have to make the boolean cutter model, assign a bone to the model and make sure the model is a "closed" model. A simple case is a rod. You can't just use two extruded circles, you have to make sure to close the circle on the end to make a closed, solid rod. Once you've go the boolean modeled, assign a bone to it and make sure all cp's are assigned to that bone. In the PWS make sure the bone has "boolean" checked.

 

Now go to your model to be cut - in the modeling window - and import the boolean cutter. Position the cutter where needed and you're good to go. Import the model, cutter and all into a new chor and render away. Oh, I almost forgot, the model to be cut needs to have a bone assigned to it also, otherwise, "No workey."

 

Booleans are great!

[Paul Forwood]

Sorry. I forgot to add the link and now I'm having trouble pasting the link into this post.

 

Hopefully it will attach again here:

 

Like I said, it is pretty basic and remember to substitute the "Ctrl/A" for just "A".

[makeideas.com]

Hi Paul;

 

Thank you for the tutorial on "How to Add a Hole to a Shape"; it was great. Had some problems getting the 5 point patch process, but did it 3 times and the third time, bingo... !

 

The A:M forums never ceases to amaze me on how human the people are here. Feels good.

 

Thank you.

 

KM

[phatso]

At the risk of throwing a wrench into the discussion, there is another method. (Nice thing about A:M, there are usually at least 3 ways of doing anything. Very flexible.) I think the method described above is usually best, but here's another trick for your bag. Which one you want to use depends to some extent on whether you're making an organic or inorganic model.

 

If you draw a continuous circular spline loop, you won't get a patch. Patches only form when 3, 4 or (with tool) 5 splines cross at control points. You can draw a loop with, say, 4 cps inside something and then attach its control points to the mesh with regular splines. The area inside the loop will be a hole.

 

The advantage of this method is that it's real, not a rendering trick, which means you can see how it's going to come out when you're modelling. The disadvantage is that it's a bit clumsy and hard to make accurate shapes, which all but rules it out for objects that would be machine-made. For holes in organic models, tho, it is perhaps the preferred method.

 

I said "circular spline loop" but, of course, if you peak the cp's you can get a square, rectangle, trapezoid...